Sorting apparatus



July 25, 1933.

w. A. TRESCOTT 1,919,403

SORTING APPARATUS Filed June 5, 1929 8 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR 14.] rescoii BY W T July 25, 1933. w. A. TRESCOTT 1,919,403

S ORT ING APPARATUS Filed June 5, 1929 8 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR WLZZZSZDes coif July 25, 1933. w sgo T 1,919,403

S QRT I NG APPARATU S Filed June 5, 1929 8 Sheets-Sheet 3 I 1 fil JNVENTOR y 1933- w. A. TRESCOTT SORT I NG APPARATUS 8 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed June 5, 1929 INV NTOR July 25, 1933. w. A. TRESCOTT SORT ING APPARATUS Filed June 5, 1929 8 Shets-Sheet 5 ATTO NE July 25, 1933.

w. A. TRESCOTT 1,919,403

:SORTING APPARATUS 8 Sheeis-Sheet 6 Filed June 5, 1929 mamas-w INYENTOR lz'aATTo- E .IuBy 25, 1933 w. A. TRESCOTT 1,919,403

SORTING APPARATUS Filed June 5', 1929 1 s Sheets-Sheet 7 INVENTOR BY llllll J ly 5, 1933- w. A. TRESCOTT SORTING APPARATUS Filed June 5, 1929 8 Sheets-Sheet 8 V 7 INVEbiTOR giLsfiffiescafb I %L$ ATTOR EYS Patented July 25, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT QFF WILLIS A. TRESCOTT, F FAIRPORT, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE TRESCQTT COMPANY,

ING, OF FAIRIE'ORT, NEW YORK,

A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK' SORTING APFARATUS Application filed June 5,

This invention relates to sorting apparatus such, for example, as is used for sorting fruit, vegetables, and the like, although it is capable also of other uses. An object of the invention is to provide a generally improved apparatus which is etficient to use, easy to operate, and of flexible character so that it may be adapted to different sorting requirements and used in a number of ways.

Another object of the invention is the provision of an apparatus constructed to sort articles satisfactorily into a number of different grades, and arranged so that all articles may be thoroughly inspected.

Still another object is the provision of a novel form of conveyor for turning the articles carried thereby so that all portions of the articles may be inspected easily and efficiently.

A further object is the provision of sorting apparatus arranged to handle articles gently so as to avoid bruising delicate fruit or break ing fragile articles, and which is economical in floor space occupied and in power required to operate the apparatus.

A still further object is the provision, in sorting apparatus using a belt conveyor, of a satisfactory guard for preventing fraying of the belt at the joint thereof.

To these and other ends the invention resides in certain improvements and combinations of parts, all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a sorting apparatus constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is aside elevation of the right hand end of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, drawn on a somewhat larger scale to illustrate additional details;

Fig. 3 is a similar view partly in section of the central portion of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. t is a sectional side elevation of the g ft hand end of the apparatus shown in Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the central portion of the apparatus, showing the side opposite to that illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3;

'Fig. 6 is a transverse vertical section through the apparatus, taken substantially on the line 66 of Fig. 5, showing one of the lateral conveyors in side elevation;

1929. Serial No. 368,625. r

Fig. 7 is a plan of the apparatus,

Fig. 8 is a transverse vertical section taken substantially on the line 88 of Fig. 2, with parts omitted;

Fig. 9 is a longitudinal vertical section illustrating a portion of the inspection conveyor and of the grading conveyor onto which the inspection conveyor discharges;

Fig. 10 (sheet 1) is a planof a fragment of a grading conveyor;

Fig. 11 is a section on the line 1l11 of Fig. 10;

Fig. 12 is a fragmentary plan of a conveyor belt, showing the jointtherein and the guard for preventing fraying of the joint, and

r Fig. 13 is a section substantially on the line 13 43 of Fig. 12. Y

Similar reference numerals throughou u the several views indicate the same part Although the invention is here disclosed with reference to a preferred embodiment intended for use in sorting or grading apples, it will be understood that the same apparatus with little or no change maybe used satisfactorily for sorting oranges, peaches, and other fruits-and various forms of vegetables and the like. Furthermore many features of the invention are not limited to sorting apparatus for fruits and vegetables or the like, but may be employed advantageously in connection with sorting apparatus for handling articles-of any character.

The apparatus comprises, in general, a series of conveyors, some of which have per forations or openings so that articles of certain selected sizes are separated from other articles of othersizes, other conveyors being arranged to transport the articles to and from the perforated conveyors and to permit inspection of the articles, and still other conveyors being arranged in conveniently accessible positions, so that articles selected as a result of inspection may be placed manually or otherwise upon these other conveyors to be transported to predetermined points.

Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, there is shown at the receiving end of the apparatus (this being the right hand end when viewed as in Fig. 1) a receiving conveyor which may be, forex ample, in the form of an endless belt runsuitably supported between the rollers. The

llU

articles to be sorted are placed on this receiving conveyor 20 and travel leftwardly thereon until they are discharged on to a short inclined member 23 arranged adjacent the roller 22. The articles delivered by the conveyor 20 to this inclined member 23 then roll or slide down the incline to a conveyor 24 which preferably has perforations therein so that articles of less than a predetermined size will drop through the conveyor and thus be separated from articles of more than the predetermined size.

This sorting conveyor 24 is inclined slightly upwardly and forwardly, so that articles which do not fall through perforations or become seated therein will not be. carried to the discharge end of the conveyor, but will roll back toward the receiving end thereof until each article has either fallen through a perforation or become seated in a'perforation. The conveyor may conveniently be constructed of a number of rigid elements flexibly attached to each other, as illustrated particularly in Figs. 10 and 11. As shown in these figures, rings 25 of metal or other rigid material are connected to each other by links 26 which likewise may be of metal, but which form pivotal connections so that the rings 25 may move relatively to each other. The rings 25 of any one conveyor all have the same inside diameter, and preferably concave portions 27 are formed at the outside of each ring, so that these portions 27 on four adjacent rings 25 form another ring of the same inside diameter as the rings 25. i

The rings 25 are connected by the links 26 so as to form an endless band or belt of any desired width, which runs over suitable rollers 30 and 31. Since the belt is formed.

of a series of rigid members (the rings 25) flexibly connected to each other, the guiding rollers 30 and 31 at the ends of this conveyor preferably are not circular but are polygonal in cross section, as is plainly shown in Fig. 2. Each side of the polygon has a length substantially equal to the distance across one of the rigid members 25, so that these rigid members 25' will lie flat on the polygonal faces of the rollers as the belt travels around the rollers, the joints between the rings 25 coming at the corners of the rollers.

When this apparatus is used for apples, for example, those apples having a size'less than the diameter of the openings through the ring 25 or between adjacent rings will fall through these openings, and will thus be separated from theapples of larger size which will not fall through the openings but which will be carried on to the discharge end of the conveyor and discharged onto an inclined surface 32 (Fig. 2).

The diameters of the openings in the rings 25 of the conveyor 24 are so chosen that only the small apples which are worthless for packing will drop through these openings. Such apples may be used satisfactorily in making cider or other products, however, and for that reason they should not be entirely discarded, although they should be separated from the larger and better apples which are to be packed. T 1e small or cider apples after passing through the perforations or openings in the conveyor 24 drop into a chute compr singslats 35 inclined laterally so as to guide the apples out of the path of the lower or return stretch of the conveyor, which chute discharges into a second chute made of slats 36, which conveys the apples back toward the center line of the apparatus and. discharges them onto a moving conveyor 37 preferably arranged below the conveyor 24 and substantially along the center line thereof. This conveyor 37 comprises a canvas belt or the like running over pulleys ,or rollers 38 and 39, the upper stretch of the belt moving leftwardly when viewed as in Figs. 1 and 2 and traveling along the bottom 40 of a trough having side walls ll to prevent the articles from falling off the sides of the conveyor. The conveyor 87 delivers the apples to an elevator 42 (Figs. 1 and which discharges them into a barrel or other convenient receptacle, or onto another conveyor which may take them to the cider press. V

The larger apples, which do not fall through the perforations of the conveyor 2%, are discharged. as above stated onto the'inclined member 32, down which they roll or slide onto what might be termed an inspection conveyor, which transports the apples past an inspection station at which one or more operators or inspectors may be stationed. This inspection conveyor is of novel form and is arranged to turn the articles carried by it so that all sides of such arti cles will become visible to the inspector. Preferably the conveyor comprises a series of rollers 45, best shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 9, which are arranged. substantially parallel to each other with their axes extending cross wise of the apparatus. or endless member-sin which the ends of the rollers 45 are journaled, so that each roller is free to turn about its own axis, but all of themare joined together into a continuous or endless series of rollers to form a sort of belt. This belt formed of the rollers travels over guiding sprockets 4* (Fig. 2) at one end and 48 (Figs. 3 and 9) at the other end, the teeth of the sprockets engaging in openings in the links 46 at the ends of the rollers, so that these rollers are keptproperly alined, and do not tend to become oblique or skewed. The axis of the sprockets 4? is adjustable by means of a screw 4-9, as shown in Fig. 2, so that the tension on thelink Lil Links eltlform chains members 46 connecting the rollers to each other may be varied.

The sprockets are driven so that the upper stretch of this inspection conveyor moves leftwardly when viewed as in Figs. 2, 3 and 9. The spaces between adjacent rollers are preferably made somewhat less than the diameter of the perforations in the conveyor 24, so that all articles delivered to the inspection conveyor by the conveyor 24 will remain on the inspection conveyor and will not fall through thespaces between the rollers. Thus the articles are carried along leftwardly by the inspection conveyor, past one or more operators stationed alongside of this conveyor for the purpose ofinspecting the articles.

As the rollers move bodily leftwardly from the sprockets 47 toward the sprockets. 48, they contact with a strip 50 (Fig. 9) which is stationary, so that the rollers roll along this strip and thus turn in a countenclock wisedirection. This rotation of the rollers causes clockwise rotation of the apples lying in the valleys or crevices between the rollers, so that all sides of the apples are exposed to view during the progress of the conveyor. The inspectors may thus detect any rotten spots or worm holes or other detects in the apples, even though such detects might be on the under side of an .apple when it was originally placed on the conveyor.

It may be noted here that the separation of the small or cider applies from the others before the other apples reach the inspection conveyor is advantageous, since there is no necessity for inspecting the cider applies,

and the number of apples transported by the inspection conveyor is thus reduced. Accordingly, the apples which need to be inspected may be inspected more thoroughly and eficiently, and attention need notbe wasted upon the cider apples.

Above the inspection conveyor 45 and'conveniently accessible to the operators standing beside this inspection conveyor is a conveyor belt 55 running over pulleys or rollers 56 and 57 (Fig. 1) which are so placed that the belt runs substantially along the center line of the apparatus. Both the upper and lower stretches of this belt are arranged to Y serve as conveyors for conveying articles in opposite directions, thus eiiecting economy both in space and in. number of parts over the usual practice wherein only one stretch of a belt used as a conveyor. Accordingto the usual practice, two separate belts would be needed to do the work done by the one belt 55 according to the present invention. This saving of one belt also results in economy of power, since less power is required to operate one belt than two. The upper stretch of the belt 55 is arranged to travel along the bottom of a trough 58 and thus forms a conveyor movingleftwardly when viewed as in Fig. 1, and discharging its articles into an inclined chute 59 which will be described in greater detall hereafter- This POItlOIlOf the belt may convenlently be referred to as the conveyor 58. The lower stretch of the belt runs at the bottom of a trough 60, torming a rightwardly moving conveyor which may be conveniently referred to as the conveyor 60. trough 60 there is a deflector 61 (Figs. 1 and 2.) arrangedto deflect article's carried by th'e conveyor laterally into aninclined chute 62 down which the articles may roll or slide into any convenient receptacle such as a basket or barrel, not shown. I

On each side ofthe inspection conveyor 45, and conveniently accessible toan' operator stationed, beside the conveyor, aretwo chutes 65 (Figs. .2 and 8) which are inclined inwardly and downwardly, discharging into the trough 41 in which the conveyor 37 runs. This conveyor, it will be recalled, conveys the cider apples which are separated out from the others by dropping through the perforations in the conveyor24.

As the apples delivered to the inspection.

conveyor 45 by the conveyor 24 travel past the operators stationed alongside this inspection conveyor, and are turned over by rotation of the rollers 45 so that all sides of the apples become visible to the operators, these opera- 5 Near the right hand end of this tors carefully observe the apples and remove but suitable for making cider or other products. These apples are picked upby the operators from the conveyor 45 and dropped into the chute 65, from which they are discharged onto thesame conveyor 37 which transports thesma-ll apples falling through the conveyor 24. Thus this group'ot apples selected by the other conveyor, to be used to makecider'or other products; q 1

A secondfkind of applesreinoved by the operators from the inspection conveyor-.45 may be those .apples whichv are unusually large or unusually fine looking. These apples inspectorsis mingled with r the groupautomatically selected by the conveyor 24, and they aretogether'conveyed to. the elevator 42and intoa receptacle or an'- may be placed manually by the operators on the conveyor 58, by which they will be transported to the chute59 and c ollected for use as a top layerwhen packing the apples in barrels or crates; Gr, if preferred, these unusually fine apples 'may be separately packed as an extra line grade.

A third kind of applesmay be removedi; .ZUJ

by the operators from .the inspection conveyor and may be placed on the conveyor 60. Theseapples may bethose having any characteristics of which it seems desirable or expedient to take note. For instance, it may be thought desirable to separate out a grade of apples slightly better than the cider apples which fall through the conveyor 24, and yet not .good enough for ordinary packing. These apples, when placed on the conveyor by the operators, will be discharged through the chute 62 into a convenient receptacle, and may be'packed as an inferior grade. Or, on the other hand, unusually good apples'may be selected and placed on the-conveyor 60, the fine apples thus being divided into two groups, one of which is placed on the conveyor 58 to be used as a top layer in heading the crates or barrels, while the other is placed onthe conveyor 60 to be packed'as an extra fine grade. It will be seen that the conveyors are so arranged that reat flexibility of operation is possible. Different apple packers may use these conveyors 37, 58 and 60 in difierent ways, each packer deciding for himself what grade or class of apples is to be placed on each conveyor, and what use will be made of each grade or class.

The apples which are not removed manually froin the inspection conveyor 45 are discharged at the end of this conveyor adjacent the sprockets 48. Ordinarily, the apples manually'removed would be but a small part of the total apples carried by the conveyor, so that the great majority of the apples would remain onthe conveyor until discharged'at the end thereof.

It has been found in practice that the discharge of the apples is facilitated if the rotation of the rollers 45 is stopped adjacent the discharge point, or if the rollers are rotated slightly in a reversedirection. Referring now to Fig. 9, a roller is shown mounted on the same shaft wit-h the sprockets 48, this roller being of such diameter that the conveyor rollers'45 will contact therewith when the links 46 move around on the sprockets 48.

If it is preferred simply to stop the rotation of the rollers 45, the roller 65 maybe fixed'to the sprockets 48 so as to rotate therewith Obviously, when the rollers 45 run off of the end of. the member 50 which caused their rotation and come into contact with the periphery of the roller 65 which is moving at the same speed as the bodily movementof the rollers 45,-the rotation of these rollers will cease.

On the other hand, if it is desired to rotate the rollers 45 in a reverse direction at the discharge point, which is found in some in quent'ly, when'the rollers 45' come into conas a sheet of rubber or the like.

tact with the periphery of the rollers 65, they will be rotated clockwise or in a reverse d1rec-- tion compared tothe counterclockwise rotation caused by the member 50. I

After the rollers'45 have passed. partly around the sprockets 48, they move rightwardly back to the other sprockets 47 along the'return or lower stretch of the conveyor,

this stretch being supportedby the shelf or conveyor fall onto an inclined member 70 7 (Fig.8) down which they roll or slide onto a. sorting conveyor 71, which is preferably constructed of rings such as are shown in l0 and 11, in amanner similar to the conveyor 24. The diameters of the rings in the conveyor't'l are slightly larger than the diameters of the rings forming the conveyor 24,'so that apples slightly larger than those dropped through the conveyor-24 will drop through the perforations in theconveyor 71 and will thus be separatedfrom the still larger apples which will remain on the conveyor. This conveyor 71 travels over. polygonal rollcrs 72 and 73 (Figs. 1, 3, 5 and 9) which are similar to the polygonal rollers 30 and 31 of the conveyor 24, but which have slightly larger faces or sides, since the rings 25 of the conveyor 71 are slightly larger than those of the conveyor 24. The conveyor 71, like the conveyor 24, is inclined slightly upwardly so that apples which do not immediately become seated in the perforations will roll back toward the lower end of the conveyor until they find vacant perforations through which they may drop or in which they may be seated if they are of too large a diameter to go through the perforations.

The inclined member 7 O, mentioned above,

is preferably made of resilient material, such The resilient construction also has another advantage, in that it provides a somewhat ,soft and flexible member for the articles to fall upon when they are discharged from the precedinv conveyor, and thus greatly lessens; the chance of bruising fruit or breaking fragile articles being handled by the apparatus.

- The apples falling through the perforations of the conveyor 71 form a small grade of packing apples and drop onto'a transverse 89. The apples on these packing tables and SZinay bepacked or otherwisedisposed or lateralconveyor arranged between the upper and lower stretches of the conveyor 71 as illustrated for example in Fig, 5. This lateral conveyor runs approximately at right angles to the direction of travel of the conveyor 71, and comprises a belt75 of canvas or the like which is-arranged to run over a roller '76 at one end and another roller (not shown) at the other end. This conveyor 75 is driven in a direction to transport the apples which fall t the perforations of the conveyor 71 laterally and to discharge them onto a packing table 77 (Fig. i) having a vertical partition 78 to separate the apples roughly into two groups, the packing table '77 being slightly inclined so that the apples will roll down toward a pair of gates or doors 79 which may no opened when it is desired to discharge the apples from the a second conveyor 80 running over polygonal rollers 81 and 82. This conveyor OOissimilar to the conveyor 71 except that thediameters of the perforations or openings therein are still larger than those oithe conveyor 71. Thus apples of a slightly larger, size than those dropping through the conveyor 71 will drop through the conveyor 80 and will fall onto a lateral conveyor comprising a belt Sal similar to the belt 75 and running over rollers 85 and 86 in a manner similar to the conveyor '55. The apple's received by the conveyor 84 "fornr an; intermediate packing grade of apples larger than the grade dropping onto the conveyor 75; but smaller than the still larger apples which are too large drop through the perforations of the sortingconveyorSO; The conveyor S l discharges those apples onto a slightly inclin d packing table 87 (Figs. {Sand 7) which similar to the packing table 77 and wh ch has a similar dividing partition 88' and discharge gates of in any suitable way. Furthermore operatorsmay be stationed alongside the conveyors 75 and 8st to inspect the apples as they IDOVC along on these conveyors, and may tions of slightly larger diameter than the preceding one. In the present embodiment, thetwo convcyorsTl and 80 are found to be inspection conveyor sufiicient. Accordingly, the conveyor" 80* arranged to discharge the apples which do not fall through the perforations onto an 1911- clined plate 90' (Fig. at) down which they roll or slide onto a conveyor belt 91 of canvas or the like which runs around rollers 92' anc 98 and is arranged to carry theapples forwardly and slightly downwardly to a in any of the conveyors, form the largest on the conveyor 58 or other appropriate con veyor.

According to the present invention, the

chute 5 9 which receives the eittra'r' finapples from the conveyor 58, isarr'anged todis charge them into' the space between the-V:-

shaped partition 95 of the paclting table, this space being indicated by the numeral 96 in i Fig; 7. Thus these fine apples areplace'd be tween' the. two groups oflarge sized apples" ted to the table by the conveyor 91, 50 that they are in the most convenient position- ,lor use by the packers who are paclr ing. the apples from the packing table 94 @rdin'arily; the crate or barrel would be filled nearly to the topwithapples from the'table'94 andthen the extra fine apples fromthe space 96' would be usedas' a top'layer ,"ordinarily're ferred to as headers. Ifpreferredthovvever, the fine apples from the space 96 could be packed by themselves asa separate grade instead of being used asheaders for the apples on' the-packing table 94t1 It will seen; therefore, that this placingofthe extra fine apples in a space between two: groups of other apples is a most convenient arrangement, permitting the extra 'fin'e' applesto be packed "either by themselves or in conj unction with the other apples;

As the extra fine apples come down the chute 595th-eirvelocity is checked by: a strip" 100 (Fig. 4) of resilient material suchas-rubher or felt, which is-fixedat its upperedgeto a cross bar 101 extending across the chute, The fruit hits this strip 100 and thrusts it momentarily upwardly so that the fruit passes beneath the strip but inso doing the velocity of the fruit is greatly redi ced;,,being slowed down to such an.-extentfthat'ltliere is no danger of bruising thetruitby'fa'llin'g-I violently onto the table 96'.

It may benoted at tliis point that great carehas been taken throughout the entire apparatus to prevent rough handling or bruising of the fruit, and especially of the better or larger gradesv of fruit. Therever possible, inclined chutes or runways have been used in place of vertical drops, and in some instances to delicate fruit.

(such, as the plate 70) the inclined members have been made of rubber or the like to prevent still further the possibility of damage It is found that the most 1 delicate fruit, such as peaches, may be handled easily by this apparatus without any substantial amount of damage.

Preferably at least one of the rollers of each of the conveyors is adjustably mounted,

so that the tension of each conveyor may be driven in any suitable way. For instance,-as lllustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, a motor 105 may be provided to drive a belt 106 which drives a large pulley 107 on a shaft 108. This shaft, in turn, carriesa smaller pulley 109 around which runs abelt 110 which drives another large pulley 111 on a shaft 112 (Figs. 1, 3

and A sprocket 113 on the shaft 112- drives the chain 114 extending rearwardly to a sprocket 115 (Figs. 1 and 2) from which is driven, by another chain 116,-the roller 22 of'the iirstconv'eyor 20 to which the fruit is originally supplied.

The shaft 112 is extended to the opposite side ofthe machine from that shown in Figs. I 1 and 3, and is provided at this opposite side with a sprocket 120 (Fig. 5) driving a chain 121 which drives another sprocket 122 fixed to the shaft 123 on-which the sprockets 48 of the inspection conveyor 45 run. In this way the inspection conveyor is driven; The shaft l23also carries a sprocket 124 driving a chain 125 which extends forwardly asjindicated in Fig.5 and drives the polygonal rollers 73 and 82 of the conveyors 71 and 80 respectively.

Referring now to Fig. 3, the polygonal roll- 7 er 73 which is driven in the manner just described has a sprocket 130 fixed to it over which runs a chain 131 driving a sprocket 132 on a shaft 133. Another sprocket on this shaft 133 drives the chain 134 which is connected'to the roller 39, thus driving the conveyor 37. This shaft 133 also has a bevel gear 136 as shown in 5, which meshes with another bevel gear 137 on a short shaft 138 journaled on the outer side of the posts 139, 140and 141. This shaft 138 carries a sprocket 142 which, as shown in Fig. 6, drives the chainj 143 which in. turn drives another chain 144which rotates the roller 86 at the delivery end of the-conveyor 84 and the corviewed as in Fig. 5), which gear 147 is on a shaft-148journaled on the inner side of the posts 141 and 149. At the end of this shaft 148 is a gear 150 meshing with another gear 151 on a shaft 152 which drives the elevator,

In addition todrivingthe chain 134 and the bevel gear 137 the shaft 133 also drives a chain 155 (Figs. 1, 4 and 5) which in turn drives a shaft'156 which drives another chain 157 which is connected to the roller 57, thus operating the belt 55 forming the two conveyors 58 and 60. The shaft 156 also drives another chain 158 which rotates the roller 93 of the conveyor 91.

Many of the conveyors used in this apparatus may be formed of belts of canvas or other fabric. One form of belt joint for such conveyors is shown in Figs. 12 and 13. A portion 160 of a belt has members 161 of wire or the likeattachedthereto in such manner slippd-through the eyes of the two sets of members 161 and 163, thus joining the two ends of the belt firmly together and forming a sort of hinge connection.

It is found in practice that with constant use the edge of the belt is apt to fray slightly,

so that one of the members 161 or 163 which is closest to the edge will pull out, and then as the fraying'continues the next member willpull out, and so on. To prevent this,

and to provide a belt joint which is of great durability and which can stand up well under .hard usage, a guard member is used to prevent fraying the edges of the belt at the joint. This guard member may comprise, for example, a piece 165 of leather or other tough material which is folded overthe edge of the belt as shown in Fig. 13, and which is held in place by means such as the rivets 166. This guardmember may be of substantially. circular shape before being applied to the belt, so that the portion thereof on each side of the'belt after it is applied is substantially semi-circular, as shown in Fig. 12, although other shapes may be used if preferred. Not only is fraying of the joint prevented by this arrangement, but also the guard member strengthens the joint since it is attached firmly by the rivets to both ends of the belt, and thus acts as a splice for the belt.

The operation of the apparatus has been described more or less in detail in connection rating conveyor 24, which allows the apples of comparatively small size to'drop through this conveyor and down the chutes 35 and 36 The sizes of the onto the conveying belt 3?. perforations or openings in the conveyor 24 are such that only comparatively small apples, too small for ordinary packing purposes,

will drop through these openings. These small apples, after being deposited upon the conveyor 37, are delivered by this conveyor to the elevator l2 and discharged from the upper end of this elevator into a suitable receptacle such as a barrel, or to another conveyor, to be used to make cider or any'other desired: product.

The larger apples, which do not pass through the perforations in the conveyor 24,

are discharged at the end of this conveyor onto the incline 32, from which they pass to the inspection conveyorcomprising the rollers 45. The apples lie in the-crevices or troughs I between these rollers, and as the rollers turn during the motion of the conveyor, the apples are rolled over and over so that substantially all parts thereof may be seen easily by the operators stationed beside the conveyor for These operators select those apples which are for any reason so defective that they cannot be packed, an d drop such defective apples into the chutes conveniently accessible to the operators, the 1 apples falling down the chute to the conveyor 87 and being mingled with the smaller size apples dehvered to this conveyor from the separating conveyor 24, so that these detective apples may be made into cider or other desired products.

The operators stationed beside the inspection conveyor 45 not only eliminate detective apples, but also watch out for exceptionally fine apples, such as those of unusually large size or of unusually good quality, and manually remove these fine apples from the conveyor d5, placing them by hand on the conveyor 58 by which they are transported to the chute 59. These extra fine apples roll or slide down the chute 59 past the resilient member 100 which slows down the apples so that they will not become bruised when they emerge from the chute 59 onto the space 96 of the packing table. These apples may be packed by themselves, or they maybe used as a top layer on crates or barrels of other apples to be placed upon the conveyor 55, the operators stationed beside the inspection conveyor may also select other apples according I to any desired criterion, and place them upon the conveyor 60. For instance, this third group of apples may be apples which are slightly defective, but which are litto be packed as an inferior grade ratherthan to be used. simply for cider or other apple proclucts. The apples placed upon this conveyor 60 are deflected laterally by the deflector 61 and go down the chute 62 to any suitable receptacle. v

The remaining apples upon the inspection conveyor 45, which were not manually removed therefrom by the operators, are discharged from this conveyor onto the resilient plate 7 0 which is suflicient ly soft and flexible so that apples or even more delicate fruits are not bruised when discharged from the conveyor, and from this plate they pass to the sorting conveyor 71, having openings therein of slightly larger diameter than the openings in the preliminary sorting conveyor 24. The apples which drop through these openings are transported laterally by the conveyor to a packing table 77, where they are packed as a commercial grade of apples.

The larger apples, which did not pass through the openings or". the conveyor 71, are delivered by this conveyor to the next sorting conveyor 80, which has perforations or openings of still larger diameter. Accordingly, part of the apples will drop through this conveyor onto the conveyor 84, by

which they will be transported laterally to the packing table 87, where they may be packed as another commercial grade of apples, somewhat larger than. those packed from the table 77'.

The apples which do not drop through the conveyor 80 and which are accordingly discharged from this conveyor onto the con veyor -91 are, of course, still larger than the apples which findtheir way to the packing table 87. These larger apples are carried by the conveyor 91 to the spaces 94 on another packing table, these spaces being on both sides of the space 96 to which the extra fine apples were'delivered by the conveyor 58. Accordingly, these extra fine apples in the space 96 are conveniently accessible to the packers packing the apples from the spaces 94, so that they may be used as headers or a top layer for the latter apples, although they may be packed separately if preferred.

If itis desired to separate the apples or other fruit into a greater number of groups according to size, additional sorting conveyors may be inserted in the apparatus between the conveyor 80. and the final delivery belt 91. The diameters of the openings in the various conveyors may be chosen at will to suit the requirements of the packer, each tofore, the various parts oi the apparatusare so designed that the fruit is handled gently and even the most delicate fruits such as peaches'may be sorted satisfactorily by this apparatus without any substantial amount of bruises. The apparatus may also be used effecti ytor sorting various fragile articles such a. glass globes and the like, and obviously could be employed for articles which are not fragile or delicate. The shapes of the perforations or openings in the various sorting conveyors would be varied to suit the articles with which the apparatus is to be used.

It will be seen that apparatus of great flexibility has been provided, since it may be used not only for many dili'erent kinds oi articles, but when used forsorting any one article, it may be employed in a number of different v. For ance, each user may decide for lt what class or grade of articles is to be placed upon each of the conveyors 37, 58 and 60, and each user may define his own criteria'tor the selection of these various classes or grades.

\Vhile one embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it is to be understood that the inventive idea may be carried'out in a number of ways. This application is there- :lore not to be limited to the precise details shown, but intended to cover all. variations and modifications thereof falling within the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

I claim as my invention 1. In a sorting apparatus, the combination with a series of rollers, of mechanism for moving said rollers bodily toward a discharge point, means for causing rotation of certain of said rollers in one direction to turn articles resting upon said rollers to expose difi'erent portions of such articles to view for purposes of inspection, and means for i causing rotation of said rollers in the opposite direction atsaid discharge point.

2. In a fruit sorting machine for the coin tinnous progressive grading of fruit, the combination with a frame, a device for feeding bulk fruit to one end thereof, a distributing table at the other end having diverging partitions separating itinto channels for se lective distribution to receptacles and co1nprising a central channel and lateral channels, and a laterally arranged distributing table having a chute leading thereto from an nally extending conveyor above the instrument-ahtles aforesaid havmg a chute deliver-- ing into the central channel of the end dis tributing table, said last mentioned conveyor and the inspection table being ointly accessi ble to the same operator.

3.1m a fruit sortmg machine for the contmuous progressive grading of frult, the

combination with a frame, a device for feed ing bulk fruit to one end thereof, a distributing table at the other end having diverging partitions separating it into channels for selective distribution to receptacles and comprising a central channel and lateral channels, and a laterally arranged distributing table having a chute leading thereto from anintermediate portionof the machine, of a cull eliminator adjacent to the feeding device, a moving inspection table progressively adjacent to the latter, a grading apron progressively adjacent to said table and adapted to deliver into the lateral chute, a conveyor progressively adjacent to said apron and running to the lateral channels of the end table in the plane thereof, a longitudinally extending conveyor above the instrumentalitiesr aforesaid having an upper reach provided With a chute delivering into the central channel of the end distributing table and a lower reach provided with an'ejector delivering laterally at the first mentioned end of the machine, both reaches of said last mentioned conveyor and the inspection table being jointly accessible to the same operator.

' 4. In a fruit sorting machine for the con tinuous progressive grading of fruit, the combination with a frame, a device for feeding bulk fruit to one end thereof, a distributing table at the other end comprising a central channel and lateral channels, and a' laterally arranged distributing table having a chute leading thereto from an intermediate portion of the machine, of a cull eliminator adjacent to the feeding device, a cull removing conveyor extendinglongitudinally beneath the machine in cooperation with the cull eliminator, a moving inspection table progressively adjacent to the latter, a grading apron progressively adjacent to said table and adapted to deliver into the lateral chute, and a conveyor progressively adjacent to said apron and running. to the end table, the said cull conveyor-being provided with chutes adjacent to the inspection table jointly accessible therewith to the same operator.

WILLIS A. TRESGOTT. 

